‘You can’t have vehicles, you can’t have tanks. So it will be a fight, person by person.’

Sinjari, who is also acting defence minister in the area, added that the estimated 4,000 to 8,000 Isis fighters would put up a fierce fight because of Mosul’s symbolic value for the hardline Sunni jihadis.

With air and ground support from the US-led coalition, an Iraqi force of about 30,000 is ready to push into Mosul after recapturing Falluja and Ramadi and seizing the Sunni stronghold of Tikrit.